Meaning & readings

noodles, wheat flour

On’yomi メン、ベン
Kun’yomi むぎこ

Origin

This character combines two components to represent noodles. The left side, (wheat), identifies the material that noodles are typically made from. The right side, (face or surface), suggests the flat, sheet-like quality of noodle dough before it is cut and cooked. Together, these parts create a character that means both the finished noodles and the wheat flour used to make them — capturing both the ingredient and the characteristic appearance of the food.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).

16 strokes

Components

  • radical bottom-left wrap
  • meaning part nyoc

Reference

Strokes
16
Kangxi radical
199
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#2331 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
Unicode
U+09EBA